Kayli Carter and Charlie Tahan are two adult siblings far too reliant on their mother inI’ll Be Right There. Carter first found success with her supporting role in Netflix’s Western miniseriesGodlessbefore going on to star in the likes ofthe Charles Manson biographical dramaCharlie Says, the Hugh Jackman-led crime dramaBad Educationand Kevin Costner and Diane Lane’s neo-Western thrillerLet Him Go. Tahan, on the other hand, has been acting since he was a kid, breaking out withI Am Legendbefore finding further success with everything fromGothamtoWayward PinesandOzark.
Carter and Tahan star inI’ll Be Right Thereas Sarah and Mark, the daughter and son of Edie Falco’s Wanda. Sarah is currently eight-months pregnant and is grappling with all the concerns over being a parent, while also preparing for her wedding and taking advantage of her baby daddy. Mark, on the other hand, is drifting aimlessly through life, being kicked out of therapy for his compulsive lying, and refusing to make any long-term plans. As Wanda grapples with trying to determine what she wants to do with the rest of her life, Sarah and Mark’s reliance on her becomes increasingly troublesome.
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Alongside Falco, Carter and Tahan, the ensembleI’ll Be Right Therecast includes Oscar nominee Jeannie Berlin,Justified’s Michael Rapaport,Mayor of Kingstown’s Michael Beach,The L Word: Generation Q’s Sepideh Moafi andGet Out’s Bradley Whitford. Boasting a host of excellent performances, a charming tone and moving exploration of life and family, the movie is a funny and broadly enjoyable dramedy.
In anticipation of the movie’s release,Screen Rantinterviewed Kayli Carter and Charlie Tahan to discussI’ll Be Right There, how they tried to learn from Falco during filming, how they captured their characters' sibling dynamic, why they think Sarah and Mark are so reliant upon Wanda, and how Whitford’s absentee father character influenced Sara and Mark’s present lives.
Carter & Tahan Leapt At The Chance To Work With Falco
Screen Rant: Kayli, I’d like to start with you, and then Charlie, what was it about this film that really sparked both of your interests to want to be a part of it?
Kayli Carter: I got the script during the pandemic, and I knew that my friend Merritt Weaver, who I did Godless with, had worked with Edie closely on Nurse Jackie, and she had worked with Brendan. So, I wanted to ask her about working with Brendan, and how that was, and I take her word as law, and she said that working with Edie changed her fundamentally as an actor and was one of the best experiences she’s ever had. From Merritt, who has worked with so many incredible people, it just sort of sealed the deal for me. I wanted to work with Edie, and I thought the script was beautifully written, and there was a clear sign that it was going to be collaborative, and that just checked all my boxes.
Charlie Tahan: Similar thing for me, it was just to work with Edie. We had worked a little bit together in the past, but not nearly as much as on this. So, for the chance to work with her and the ensemble cast was amazing. Even before I read the script, I knew I wanted to be a part of it, but then I read the script, I was like, “It was just written beautifully.” And like Kayli said, it had so many familial aspects to it, and room for improv, and it was funny and touching and sad and relatable. It was a no-brainer.
So, I’d love to touch on getting to work with Edie, because you both have very different relationships with her. In the movie Kayli, you try to be the good daughter. Charlie, you’re kind of all over the map. What was it like for both of you finding the rhythm of your relationships with Edie, especially given that this was an indie film, so you really have to find that quickly?
Kayli Carter: I always think whoever’s No. 1 on the call sheet really dictates the energy and the environment of the movie, and when it’s someone like Edie Falco, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who’s worked with her who wouldn’t say that she is the standard-bearer for how a No. 1 should act. She is professional, she shows up ready and knows her stuff, but is not afraid to play, not afraid to look silly. Takes the work seriously, but not herself, and those are a lot of the things that I always strive for when I work. So, to watch her, it felt very mother-daughter. It felt like I was trying to learn from her example every day on set, which I think you can feel and see in the finished product.
Charlie Tahan: Yeah, really, same as what Kayli said, Edie makes it so easy to have these relationships. They were already written so perfectly on the page that it was all sort of there. But I just tried to think about my mom, because I see a lot of my mom in Wanda. There’s not a lot of crossover with my relationship with my mom and Mark’s relationship with her, but I just tried to think about that. Edie’s in every scene in this movie, so just following her lead and trying to find my footing within the chemistry of this family, and then having it all sort of culminate when we all were able to get together was really beautiful.
Carter & Tahan Felt Comfortable “Acting A Fool” As Siblings With Each Other
So, speaking of when you get to get together, I would love to hear about the two of you finding the dynamic of your sibling relationship. Because it is funny watching these two sort of scrap, but at the same time, there is still clearly a care and a sort of, “Don’t tell mom I’m doing this” attitude between the two of you.
Kayli Carter: There’s something about your siblings that really brings out the most childish version of you. They’re your secret keepers, and they’re your best friends. They’re also your tormentors. There’s so much tied up in that relationship, but I think the prevailing thing that I felt was a sense of safety, that the only reason that these two people, Mark and Sarah, could be this way to each other is because there’s real love there. Like, “You go to jail, I’m bailing you out” kind of love. That’s the only way that you’re able to act a fool in front of somebody, and I felt very comfortable acting a fool in front of Charlie Tahan. [Chuckles]
Charlie Tahan: I felt very comfortable acting a fool in front of Kayli Carter. A lot of it, I think, is just great casting. It worked, and we just naturally have good chemistry. Kayli, I just thought, was amazing from day 1. And, yeah, like Kayli said, there’s not really an argument in this movie that probably didn’t end off screen with, like, “Okay, yeah, love you, see you tomorrow.” There are high stakes to it, but at the end of the day, it is nothing but love, I think. And that came across on the page, we didn’t have to force that in at all.
Sarah’s Pregnancy Storyline “Really Tracked” For Carter
Kayli, I would love to turn to you next, because for much of this film, your character’s dealing with the prospect of giving birth, and what her life is going to be like after that. I’d love to hear what was going through your character’s head as she tried to figure out this life path, while also still glomming on to her mom and hoping that she’ll be there to support her through this.
Kayli Carter: I think that when I’m on my way to becoming a mother, I’ll call my mom fairly frequently, I can just tell that I’m going to be one of those people that, as soon as I have to do that, I’m going to be like, “[In a scared voice] Mom!” It’s so scary, the prospect of that to me. I think, sometimes, we minimize what a massive transformation that is in a woman’s brain and body.
Like, there is an alien that has taken over the spaceship, she is not in control of what happens to her in any way, and there’s a real desire to get that back and have things be perfect and do things correctly, and that I really related to. Wanting to do it the right way and not wanting to mess up a kid, that feels like a really high-stakes mistake to make. So, I think that piece of it was like, “Oh, of course, she wants her mommy this whole time. She needs to keep her mommy close.” That really tracked for me.
Mark’s Unpredictable Behavior Was Really Exciting For Tahan To Explore
Charlie, I will turn to you next, because the stakes are pretty high for you, as well, as you’re figuring out what to do in life. You’ve been kicked out of therapy, you are considering — I don’t want to spoil it — a certain career, let’s say. I’d love to hear what it was like for you to find the core of this character as he is in this sort of aimless part of his life.
Charlie Tahan: Well, I was saying earlier today, I think that when I read the script, he was so aimless and is sort of a character that doesn’t have a center, and is really unpredictable, and that’s exciting as an actor. Mark doesn’t have a thing, he’s sort of just doing things impulsively. And I think with the big decision that he makes in the movie, I imagine it’s something he’s probably put thought into, or at least the idea has been in his head for many years, to sort of do something about this weird limbo stage of life that he’s in that he can’t seem to get out of.
He doesn’t know who he is yet, at a time when you’re expected to be coming into your own and becoming a fully fledged adult. I think that he just ultimately decides that he needs to do something, and it might have been the first thing that crossed his mind, but he recognizes that he needs some structure in his life, and that he can’t keep treating everything as a joke, basically.
Mark & Sarah’s Absentee Father Influenced One Performance More Than The Other
Now we’ve talked about Wanda’s influence on your character’s lives, and I’d love to hear what you actually think your characters' dad’s influence might be, because we see that he’s sort of an absentee figure. He’s wrapped up in his new life. How do you think his raising of your characters may have influenced where they are today?
Kayli Carter: That was a large thing for me in finding Sarah, actually. I think it’s the piece that I understood the most, was this piece of her wanting her father’s approval and her father’s support. It seems so clear to me that if my father had been starting a family from scratch again and trying to make new choices and trying to do things differently, then it’s only natural for the adult children of that parent to go, “Okay, so what was wrong with the way that you raised us?” That’s gotta reflect so personally onto a daughter who just wants her dad to walk her down the aisle. That piece, I think, felt like I didn’t need to do much mental gymnastics to understand that.
Charlie Tahan: For me, I think Mark is probably someone who sort of pushes things off, brushes them aside, acts like it doesn’t bother him, probably tricks himself into thinking it bothers him less than it really does. I think there’s definitely anger and resentment there. I never thought of a throughline of why Mark is the way he is, and how that related to the way he was raised. Thinking back now, I probably had it in my mind that he is a bit of a mama’s boy, and his real authority figure and person he probably got along the best with was his mom. But also, she can be a bit of a pushover, and he walks all over her at the same time in a very adolescent way.
Wanda’s Coming Out Scene Tackles An Important Theme About Parent-Children Relationships
Kayli, I’d love to turn to you next, because I was talking with Brendan, and he was mentioning the porch scene after you find Wanda with the woman she’s sort of seeing, and how that was an improv one-shot. I would love to hear about putting that scene together, and what you think is going through Sarah’s mind as she’s in this moment?
Kayli Carter: I think, often, we don’t see our parents as people. I’m very lucky with my own parents that they were very young when they had me, so they were learning and screwing up along the way, in a way that was very helpful to see as a kid that parents aren’t perfect, exalted humans. But in a lot of my friends, I would see them interact with their parents, and there’s just this thought that this human is immune from mistakes or immune from their own private wants and needs.
Like, to consider your parents' wants and needs, especially your parents' sexual wants and needs, is not something adult children are in the practice of doing. [Chuckles] So, that piece of it, I was like, “Oh, this has got to be, for her, a discovery that, ‘Mom is a person with her own sexual desires, wants and needs, and also, something that she gets to bring up whenever she wants to.'” [Laughs] I can see Sarah not letting this lie, and that was so fun for me to do. And Brendan, once he saw that I was game to improv, he just kept pushing a little bit more. He just wanted the laughs, that’s all he wanted from me by the end of it, is just to make him laugh, and that was my goal as well.
Charlie, I don’t think we really see what Mark’s reaction would be to that relationship. What do you think he might feel about that discovery?
Charlie Tahan: I don’t think he’d care!
Kayli Carter: Yeah, so nonplussed.
Charlie Tahan: Yeah, I think he’d go, “Okay.” First thing that comes to mind, I really never considered it. But yeah, I don’t think he would care at all, just go, “Okay, is this something I need to know?”
Kayli Carter: That was actually my favorite piece of that storyline too, is that it was just something that she was doing and trying. No storyline in this feels like the central issue. I think in a lot of movies, any one of these things would have been made the issue of the movie, but it’s all just sort of laid into the rhythms of how people live, and people just living by their whims, which I think is more honest.
AboutI’ll Be Right There
Wanda has her hands full: her 8-month pregnant daughter wants a wedding which her ex-husband is flaking on paying for, her mother thinks she’s dying, her wayward son is either going into rehab or the army, her long-time boyfriend doesn’t excite her, but her new girlfriend doesn’t either, and she barely has time for herself, not that she would know what to do with it anyway.
I’ll Be Right There
Cast
Wanda tries to keep her own life together while simultaneously taking care of everyone else around her.
